Rename Aspergers “Wingers Syndrome”

If Aspergers should be renamed why not call it:

”Wingers Syndrome”

After Lorna Winger?

Parents
  • I thought the whole point of getting rid of the term Asperger Syndrome was so that Autism Spectrum Condition embraces all manifestations of difficulties and not choosing parts of it to be names after the people who first noticed it. Just changing it from One persons name to another would be pointless

  • Yes, I agree.  My formal diagnosis is ASC, and I'm perfectly happy with that.  Each of the traits associated with autism  is a little spectrum all of its own. Rather than trying to create ambiguous categories by singling out specific traits, which can leave people in a "grey area" between diagnoses, I think it's far more important to identify what specific support a person needs, regardless of what formal names are chosen.

    Even to say that Asperger's Syndrome is defined by lack of language delay is deceptive. Being able to produce grammatical sentences and having a good vocabulary are not sufficient to be a good communicator; that requires an understanding of the pragmatic components of communication - social context, theory of mind and emotional intelligence, which each "aspie" would have in their own multitude of combinations.

    If someone asks; "so is ASC like Asperger's Syndrome?", then I'm not offended, and I'm happy enough to tell them why my diagnosis isn't given that name, but I identify myself (if I even need to at all) as an autistic person rather than as an "aspie". If people care to listen to a more detailed explanation, it will be clear enough that I'm not trying to usurp the labels applied to autistic people who may have greater struggles than my own.

Reply
  • Yes, I agree.  My formal diagnosis is ASC, and I'm perfectly happy with that.  Each of the traits associated with autism  is a little spectrum all of its own. Rather than trying to create ambiguous categories by singling out specific traits, which can leave people in a "grey area" between diagnoses, I think it's far more important to identify what specific support a person needs, regardless of what formal names are chosen.

    Even to say that Asperger's Syndrome is defined by lack of language delay is deceptive. Being able to produce grammatical sentences and having a good vocabulary are not sufficient to be a good communicator; that requires an understanding of the pragmatic components of communication - social context, theory of mind and emotional intelligence, which each "aspie" would have in their own multitude of combinations.

    If someone asks; "so is ASC like Asperger's Syndrome?", then I'm not offended, and I'm happy enough to tell them why my diagnosis isn't given that name, but I identify myself (if I even need to at all) as an autistic person rather than as an "aspie". If people care to listen to a more detailed explanation, it will be clear enough that I'm not trying to usurp the labels applied to autistic people who may have greater struggles than my own.

Children
  • I thought the whole point of getting rid of the term Asperger Syndrome was so that Autism Spectrum Condition embraces all manifestations of difficulties

    Well, there are two or three separate things going on, so I don't think it's the whole point:

    1. Like you say, a lot of autistic people feel they are so individual that AS doesn't cover it, it's confusing, AS has arbitrary boundaries within the spectrum (or constellation),and so autism (or ASC) is the wider, more general term. I see this, but not everyone agrees (yet). I was diagnosed as 'ASC, specifically AS'.
    2. DSM-V has likewise subsumed AS under ASD ('disorder') - see Tony Attwood below. For many AS was just a transitional way to recognise autism, now obsolete.
    3. Recently, historical research has shown that Hans Asperger, who we always knew operated under Nazi rule, willingly co-operated with sending disabled children to a 'hospital' where they would be killed. For various reasons, many people acknowledge this history, but now want to distance themselves from it, and this for example is why Asperger United is changing its name.

    Some people are more concerned about 3 than 1 or 2.

    Having read the suggestions in the initial thread, the only one I would accept is Attwood's, but that's only because I personally got so much from his work

    Which suggestion was that?  This is what Attwood himself said: https://vimeo.com/134405682 (before Czech's research on Hans Asperger was published).

    I agree that there are a whole series of variables within autism - you can be hypo or hypersensitive, have problems with faces or non-verbal communication or not, be very focussed on your own interests or not, have problems socialising or be very social, have spatial differences or synaethesia, be very inhibited or very uninhibited depending on situation, have special interests of one sort or another or none at all.... You could go on and on.

    It's all autism, and not worth splitting arbitrarily apart again, let alone at the expense of recognising individuality and particular needs. But there may still be different 'profiles' within that, of which 'Asperger' is likely to remain one. This has something to say on the subject of such profiles: https://autisticmotherland.com/2018/05/23/pda/